Boise? Not Blown Away

TULSA, Okla. -- As Chris Petersen left the field and walked through a portal at H.A. Chapman Stadium, a loud-mouthed Tulsa fan yelled, "You guys lucked out.'' The Boise State coach just looked up and smiled.

After all, the Broncos are counting on a lot more luck the rest of this season than anything they got Wednesday night in a 28-21 win over the Golden Hurricane.

How much the pollsters were impressed by the latest win by Boise State (6-0), fifth in the AP poll and sixth in the more important coaches' poll, will be learned Sunday. The next poll will be more important than the last ones since Sunday is the day the first BCS rankings come out.

Despite their lofty ranking, conventional wisdom is that it doesn't look good for the Broncos when it comes to playing in the national championship game. The thinking is all of the top one-loss teams from the big conferences will be able to trump the Broncos at the end of the regular season.

"It's usually never good enough,'' Petersen cracked after the game about whether his team's win was impressive enough.

You'd think college football was Olympic diving the way style points begin to count when the BCS standings have come into play. And did the Broncos get enough of them with the eyes of the nation upon them in an ESPN nationally televised weekday game?

Probably not.

The Broncos took a 28-14 lead into the fourth quarter, but the lead should have been bigger since they had to twice settle for short field goals. Then the Golden Hurricane stunned the Broncos with a 55-yard touchdown pass from G.J. Kinne to the wonderfully named Slick Shelly with 9:29 left in the game to cut the deficit to 28-21.

The Broncos might have been sweating had Kinne not underthrown a pass to a wide open Charles Clay at the Boise State 40 on fourth-and-six with the clock ticking under 40 seconds for the game. It's no wonder there was a feeling on the Boise State side this one should have been wrapped up much earlier.

"That's a good football team and they're going to respond and not give up and keep fighting,'' said Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore, who completed 22-of-32 passes for 187 yards and threw three touchdowns, two to tight end Tommy Gallarda. "But certainly something we're looking at improving on is to be able to finish those games at the end of the game and ending it right there.''

The Broncos better finish games early and often down the stretch to have any chance of playing for the national title. Their last seven games include only one against a team that currently has a winning record.

And what is that one remaining powerhouse?

Idaho.

Yep, a win over the Vandals is really going to impress the pollsters.

Petersen and most of his players shrug off questions about the polls and whether an undefeated Boise State would deserve to play for the national title if the six major conferences can't come up with two undefeated teams to battle for the crown. But that's where Karl Benson comes in.

Benson is the commissioner of the Western Athletic Conference. He banged the conference drum for Boise State in the 2006 season, when it defeated Oklahoma in that dramatic Fiesta Bowl to finish undefeated. He banged it when WAC champion Hawaii went undefeated in the 2007 regular season before getting wiped out by Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Now, though, the stakes are even bigger. If the Broncos finish undefeated, they are all but certain to finish in the top 12 in the BCS Standings. That would clinch a BCS bowl bid unless Texas Christian of the Mountain West Conference also goes undefeated and passes the Broncos.

But Benson wants the Broncos to get a fair shake when it comes to possibly playing in the National Championship Game. And right now he's not too pleased to see Virginia Tech and USC, both with one loss, having moved ahead of the Broncos in the polls in recent weeks.

"I don't think anybody has come up with a system that is close to being perfect in terms of how teams are ranked,'' Benson said. "There's a human element... So now it's a situation, is a one-loss team more deserving? Right now, the system is saying yes, with a one-loss Virginia Tech team (fourth in the coaches poll) and a one-loss Southern California team (fifth) ahead [of the Broncos].

"All Boise State can do is win. Do they have to win convincingly? Is [Wednesday's game] a convincing win? You win on the road against a decent opponent, but, unfortunately the expectations are that Boise State has to win convincingly but Virginia Tech can squeak by Duke and be rewarded (winning 34-26 at Duke on Oct. 3 and then passing Boise State in the polls). One of my commissioner colleagues several years ago said, 'We don't need bowl reform. We need poll reform.'''

So what if a one-loss team is playing in the title game and an undefeated Boise State team is left out?

"We'd be disappointed, but it also would continue to create controversy that the system isn't fair,'' Benson said. "The best thing that can happen is for Boise State to play in the National Championship Game. Then everyone can say, 'The system works if an undefeated Boise State plays for the national championship.'''

Well, Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson might not say that if his team, TCU (5-0), ranked eighth in the coaches' poll and 12th by AP, finishes undefeated and doesn't play for the national crown.

At least the Broncos own a 19-8 season-opening win over Oregon, which since has turned its season around with five straight wins. Other than that, it's hard to do too many handstands about their wins over Miami University, Fresno State, Bowling Green and California-Davis. And while Tulsa (4-2) is a solid team, the Golden Hurricane was crushed earlier this season 45-0 at Oklahoma.

"The bottom line is we need to worry about ourselves way more than worry about the rankings,'' said Petersen, who got a gritty 112 yards rushing from Doug Martin.



If the Broncos, who actually did trail for the first time this season when they fell behind 7-0 and 14-8 in the first quarter, can continue to win, players are confident they can match up with anybody.

Florida? Alabama? Those schools don't scare defensive end Ryan Winterswyk.

"We're competitors,'' Winterswyk said. "We think we can play with anybody. That's kind of our deal. Alabama. Florida. It would be a great opportunity to play one of those teams.''

Winterswyk, a junior, was redshirting as a freshman when the Broncos beat Oklahoma 43-42 in overtime in that legendary Jan. 1, 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

Boise State only has four seniors, and just two were with the team three years ago and played in that Fiesta Bowl. Petersen was then in his first year as the team's head coach, and he knows that game got the Broncos to be known for more than just their quirky blue field.

"It probably all helps,'' Petersen said about pollsters giving the Broncos more respect due to that game. "What Utah did last year (a non-BCS conference team going undefeated and upsetting Alabama in the Sugar Bowl to finish ranked No. 2) and what we did (by winning the Fiesta Bowl). It's all a cumulative effect to let others know that good football is played in other conferences.''

The amazing win over the Sooners featured several dramatic Boise State plays, including a fourth-down hook-and-lateral pass for a last-second game tying touchdown in regulation and a fourth-down halfback pass in overtime that was followed by a statue-of-liberty play for a two-point conversion to win the game.

That fan yelling at Petersen on Wednesday was three years late. That night against another team from Oklahoma was when Petersen used up what would seem to be enough luck for one lifetime.

Nevertheless, Petersen now could use some more.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com